Uniting technology and business

摘要

People who today combine the concepts "innovation" and "management" clearly understand that in a globally active corporation research and development must be linked up with the strategies of company divisions. Innovation, a concept that is a little too worn-out and not always correctly understood, means creating something anew, altering something, finding a new connection between things or a new way of using something. Joseph Schumpeter, an early 20th century Austrian economist, traces the word innovation back to its Latin origins in his book "Theory of Innovation:" It means just as much as recreating something, whether in a new context or a new product, as much as it bears the status of a novelty. Because of this, he concludes, innovation means the implementation of a technical and organizational improvement. "To be at the forefront of technical advancement through innovation," that's the clear aim of ThyssenKrupp AG's Chairman of the Executive Board. Not even a year ago, during the financial press conference in Essen's Villa Huegel, Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz spoke about the way the Group understands the concept of innovation. Drawing on a concrete example, the Chairman mentioned the Dortmunder Ober-flaechenCentrum (DOC), a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Stahl. It's at the DOC that "we've bundled all research and development activities regarding surface finishing of high-grade steel since 2000. It's considered one of the world's leading research centers in this field."